Are you wondering where the best place in Argentina is to find young, gay Argentinian boys? Well, the answer is Córdoba! The city is famous for having Argentina’s oldest university and as a result, there is a large student population which means a vibrant nightlife including a small but exciting gay scene.

As well as the nightlife, Córdoba offers plenty of beautiful architecture, particularly the many religious buildings such as the popular Cathedral of Córdoba. Another popular sight is the Jesuit Block, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which contains the old headquarters of the university, the National School of Monserrat and the Domestic Chapel.

Cordoba has a decent offering of gay friendly accommodations. Having spent a few months travelling across the country, we had ample time sampling the best places to stay in Cordoba. Here’s our roundup of our 5 favourite gay friendly Cordoba hotels, for all budgets.

Where to stay in Córdoba

Córdoba is the second most populous city in Argentina after Buenos Aires and is located on the banks of the Suquía River. There’s no metro system as of yet, but you will be able to get around the city easily using buses or trolleybuses. Here’s a quick summary to the best gay friendly neighbourhoods to stay in.

Güemes: Güemes is our favourite gay friendly neighbourhood, it’s bohemian and lively with a more alternative nightlife scene than the city centre. This is where you will find the majority of Córdoba’s gay bars, discos and clubs as well as a craft fair (The Paseo de las Artes) during the daytime. If you want to be right in the heart of the gay area in Córdoba, stay at the lovely Windsor Hotel & Tower.

Canada is one of our favourite places to visit. It’s not only one of the most gay friendly countries in the world, it also offers so much to LGBTQ travellers including large gay scenes, Pride events throughout the year, stunning landscapes, and of course many cute guys.

We met one particularly cute Canadian guy at the Whistler Pride event, who is not only a world famous renowned vlogger, but has since become Mr Gay Canada! Josh Rimer is proudly shining the rainbow flag around the world, so we just had to sit him down and get his word about gay life in Canada.

Hi Josh, introduce yourself:

Hi guys, I’m Josh Rimer, 41 years old. I grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, now living in Vancouver in British Colombia with my fiancé Heath. I’m a gay travel vlogger and also host travel content on our national LGBTQ television station that airs daily.

This year I was also made Mr. Gay Canada 2019!

What was it like growing up gay in a small town like Red Deer?

I’ve been out for about 20 years now and luckily it was a much easier and more accepting process than I originally thought it would be. Canada itself is a very progressive country and Canadians are generally very liberal-minded, so I was lucky in that sense.

But I grew up in the days before there was any talk about marriage equality and Red Deer was an area that was especially conservative. This was also just before the Internet so it was difficult to understand and accept that I could be gay. There were no openly gay people around me, so the only homophobia I saw or experienced was when kids would use gay slurs to put someone down, so I knew it wasn’t something there was a positive feeling towards.

This is our list of the top 10 most gay friendly countries in the world. We based our research on the following 4 studies and combined this with our personal experience of having travelled to over 100 countries as a gay couple:

To be clear, we are looking at countries overall, not cities or regions. So for example, whilst the US has some of the gayest destinations in the world (San Francisco, the Keys, Fire Island etc) it also has so much extreme homophobia, which makes it difficult to rank it in our top 10.

In our opinion, gay marriage for us is the first and most important marker to measure how gay friendly a country is because we think that a government making the proactive stance to go from having civil unions to the symbolic step of saying “we’re all equal and we’re going to call it marriage” is a big deal! The only exception we made for this is Thailand – a destination we’ve always felt extremely welcome in as a gay couple, despite it not having equal marriage laws. Here are our top 10 gay friendliest countries in the world.

Prague is one of Europe’s top gay travel destinations and in our opinion, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Prague is magical, with its striking gothic architecture, magnificent medieval monuments, like something from a fairy tale. It’s no wonder that it’s one of the most visited cities in the world.

We loved strolling through the labyrinth of narrow cobblestone streets that make up the UNESCO listed Old Town and then experiencing the thrilling gay nightlife of Prague in the evening.

Our Prague Gay Guide

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, a former Soviet country in Central Europe, now part of the EU. The country is so rich with culture that you can never get bored exploring it. To give you a brief idea, its history date back to the 9th century when it used to be called ‘The Duchy of Bohemia’ under the Great Moravian Empire. It was around this time that Prague Castle was built, one of Prague’s most famous tourist sites. In addition, most of the beautiful and picturesque medieval buildings of the Old Town, like “Charles Bridge” were subsequently built in the 1300s by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV. There’s a lot to see here, which we’ve summarised below, but make sure you also give yourself ample time to check out the dynamic gay nightlife of Prague.

Travel insurance is a must for any trip, regardless of what you’re doing or where you’re going. Having good cover before jetting off is one of our main tips for staying safe when travelling.

If for whatever reason something goes wrong during your trip, knowing you have travel insurance is really helpful. We experienced this first hand when Seb had to rush home for a family medical emergency. We were (thankfully!) able to make a successful claim on our travel insurance.

In some scenarios, travel insurance is not only important, but a necessary obligation, in particular for certain tourist visa applications and activities like scuba diving. Be sure to read the fine print, as some travel insurance plans do not cover scuba diving if you dive below a specified number of feet or dive without a dive master.

In the past we used to purchase our travel insurance as individuals. But since we got engaged, we regard ourselves as a family unit and completely expect others to do so as well, especially the company from which we are purchasing an insurance policy! Sadly, not all insurance companies do so, which is one of the many reasons why we believe seeking out gay friendly travel insurance companies is so important.

Key West is super gay! This small island in south Florida is a notorious gay mecca, with a whopping 30% of its 25,000 residents identifying as LGBTQ.

The island’s history as a gay destination dates back to the 1950s when well-known LGBTQ celebrities like Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Jerry Herman, Leonard Bernstein and Elizabeth Bishop have since made it their home. Subsequently in 1983, Key West became the first place in the US to elect an openly gay mayor (Richard A. Heyman), then in 2000, the island’s motto became: “One Human Family“.

We’ve visited Key West on several occasions and always had a blast, especially on the gay scene on Duval Street. There are so many things to do for gay travellers and with regards to to the hotels, it was never a case of ‘please can we have a double bed’, but more – ‘which of these many gay hotels should we stay at on this trip?’

There are an impressive number of different gay resorts in Key West to pick from, so we’ve put together our 10 best Key West resorts, which also includes gay hotels and guesthouses.

It has a young and diverse population due to the large community of students, expats and the strong sports culture with two notorious home teams: the “Tampa Bay Lightening” hockey team and the “Tampa Bay Bucaneers” American football team.

All gay travellers to gay Tampa will find something to love about the city, in particular the GaYborhood in Ybor. For general inspiration, check out our best things to do in Tampa guide. Meanwhile, this is our detailed gay guide to Tampa focusing on the best bars, clubs, places to stay and more.

The gay neighbourhood of Tampa is based in the city’s historic district called “Ybor City”, specifically along 7th Avenue. A coalition of businesses in the area created a LGBT Chamber of Commerce business group called “GaYbor”, from which the gay neighbourhood of Tampa affectionally takes its name.

In GaYbor, you will find the main gay clubs, bars, bathhouses of Tampa, as well as a number of boutique and vintage shops like “La France“. In the evening, especially on weekends, 7th Avenue comes alive as the crowds hit the gay bars like Bradleys and Honey Pots (see more below).

Tampa is a city packed with so many things to do for couples of all ages. We spent 4 days here and never once got bored.

There is always something happening in Tampa, with a festival to celebrate almost everything, like a Greek Festival, Italian, festivals for Margarita cocktails, cigars, cupcake and even a Mac & Cheese festival! The most famous is the Gasparilla pirate festival in January, which celebrates José Gaspar, a Spanish pirate who used to roam and plunder across the Gulf of Mexico.

For the latest events taking place in Tampa, check Visit Tampa Bay’s website, as well as the Visit Florida website. For romantic inspiration, continue reading below for our 10 coolest things to do in Tampa for couples, based on our first hand experience.

1. A stroll through history in Ybor City

Ybor City is Tampa’s historic neighbourhood, once home to a prominent cigar industry. It is named after Vicente Martinez-Ybor who in 1880 selected this spot as the base for his industry. Back then, this was a tiny isolated village. Mr Ybor attracted thousands of immigrants, mainly from Cuba, Italy and Spain, who came here to work and subsequently developed a strong Latino culture here. At one point, Ybor City become a prominent base for Cuban revolutionaries like Jose Marti and Paulina Pedroso.

After Mr Ybor’s death in 1896, his cigar industry thrived, reaching a peak in the 1920s, when there were more cigar factories in Ybor City than in Cuba. Sadly it started to decline after the Great Depression hit in 1929, and also due to the growth of the cigarette industry. This led to a mass exodus of people between the 1930s-1980s from Ybor City. However since the 1980s, Ybor City has had a huge renaissance, becoming not only a hotspot for tourism, but a popular nightlife area with an excellent gay scene on Seventh Avenue.

We highly recommend taking a walking tour with a company like Ybor Walking Tours to learn more about Ybor City’s fascinating past.

Sarasota is a destination that most gay travellers to Florida are likely to overlook, opting for nearby St. Petersburg instead.

We’ll be very honest, before coming to Sarasota we knew very little about it. However, it turned out to be the hidden gem of our trip, a place we would definitely love to return to. As well as being the cultural capital of Florida with so many things to do, it also has a fun gay scene worth checking out, with annual events like the “Harvey Milk Festival” and “Sarasota Pride”.

The gay scene of Sarasota is so small that even gay locals we met advised us to instead head to nearby St. Pete to party. This is no surprise given that St. Pete is 5 times larger than Sarasota. Despite its size, Sarasota still has a handful of places worth checking out for a fun gay night out:

Purple Rhino: this is Sarasota’s oldest gay bar with a really friendly atmosphere and some hilarious drag shows. We came here on a Saturday evening and saw a couple of shows, which you can see in our video below. On Sunday evenings, look out for their gay drag “Bingo Bash” event. Purple Rhino is located at 2920 Beneva Rd and is open daily from 4:40pm to around 10:30pm (later on weekends).

Unspoilt and untouched by mass tourism, Koh Adang is how most islands in Thailand used to be 25 years ago.

It is the largest island of the Adang Archipelago, which forms part of the Koh Tarutao National Marine Park. It is also the antithesis of busy touristy Koh Lipe located just opposite: secluded, unspoilt and peaceful.

We love visiting this part of Thailand because on the one hand it offers all the touristic options you need for a comfortable holiday on Koh Lipe, whilst at the same time you find gems like Koh Adang.

The Adang-Rawi Archipelago

Adang is part of the Tarutato National Marine Park in southwest Thailand close to the Malaysian border. Within this national park there are two groups of islands: Tarutao and Adang-Rawi. The Adang-Rawi group consists of Koh Lipe, Koh Adang, Ko Rawi, Koh Butang and Koh Lek.

Koh Lipe is the only island in this archipelago that has been allowed to develop for mass tourism, with many restaurants, hotels, resorts, bars, agencies and more. Although Koh Lipe has managed to avoid the problems caused by mass tourism in Thai islands, during peak periods like the Chinese New Year, it can become extremely busy, and quite claustrophobic.

Koh Adang on the other hand is the total opposite: remote, underdeveloped and peaceful. It is the ideal respite from the heaving crowds on Koh Lipe, yet only 5-10 minutes away by tail boat.